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House building declined in 2012

House building declined in 2012 due to a sharp fall in public sector registrations of new homes, figures published today reveal.

Data from the National House Building Council shows registrations for new housing fell 9 per cent from 114,930 in 2011 to 104,510 last year. The fall was due to a sharp drop in public sector registrations, which fell 28 per cent from 38,680 to 26,390. Private sector registrations remained steady at slightly more than 78,000.

Public sector completions also fell slightly, from 36,990 to 34,280, while private sector completions increased from 76,890 to 80,270.

Mehban Chowdery, head of social housing at NHBC, said: ‘Over the course of the last year the final 2012 figures for the social housing sector were significantly down on 2011.

‘This decrease can be partly attributed to the delays in starting the affordable homes programme, which had a significant knock-on effect on the subsequent figures for the UK’s public sector housing numbers.’